Israel is running headlong into its own sucicide. Will there ever be a wakeup call loud enough to wake the fools from their slumber that hasn't left most of them already dead?

Why is the obvious so hard to see?

PD:

The obvious is so hard to see because so many Israelis and Americans insist on superimposing their own desire for peace on the other side, who, in truth, desire the annihilation of Israel.

It's an extreme form of narcissism.

When President Bush was first elected and would not meet with Arafat, I thought to myself, finally someone who understands. When he said negotiating with terrorists is not the way to bring peace, it shored up my belief that he does understand. And to see all those hopes dashed by Annapolis.

I'm trying to see any sort of silver lining with the Annapolis conference and can't. It is like a bunch of wolves encircling a deer for the kill and the deer is Israel.

And total war will come. No amount of appeasement will hold it off. The efforts at appeasement will just make it that much worse.

Peace will never be realitic when one side is teaching it's children mindless hate. And that is what the Arabs are doing.

For many of the reasons you cited, I also hold no great hopes for the success of the Annapolis conference, although as you know I believe there are obstacles on the Israeli side as well that will prevent any meaningful arrangement.

However, I see a certain problem in your position that the only way to end, or manage, this conflict is total war.

You yourself have stressed that what we are facing now is a new kind of war - "fourth generation war," as you call it. Like many of the approaches that you criticize on this basis, Sherman's tactics and those of the Allies in the Second World War were used, and effective, in the context of previous generations of war.

Would these tactics have been as effective nowadays? I'm not sure. What if the Southern whites, the Germans and/or the Japanese had had access to the advanced technologies that are available in our time to individual terrorists - technologies through which one person can inflict untold physical and psychological damage to very large groups of people, and dramatically sway public opinion on both sides of a conflict? Perhaps these peoples would not have been so quiescent after their defeat, or even have fully accepted the fact that they lost their wars. They might have turned to terrorism in far greater and more effective numbers, and the world might have seen the same vicious cycle that we see today: the indiscriminate bombing of civilians achieves quiet for the short term, but in the long term creates more terrorists who, in turn, perform acts that invite more bombings.

And this does not even take into account the support that the Palestinians have (whether we like it or not) in the billion-strong Muslim world. What if the Confederates, the Germans and/or the Japanese had enjoyed such support?

I do not claim to have the solution to the admittedly urgent problem of global jihad. But even if the Palestinians did elect Hamas, I still believe that bombing all of them "back to the Stone Age" as was done in previous generations of war will only be counterproductive in the long run. We, and especially our leaders, will need to be much more creative than that.

Sara--while I'm not an explosives expert, I'm pretty sure that the explosives available to the Germans and Japanese at the end of WWII would have been adequate for a pretty effective campaign of terrorism. Less true in the black powder era at the end of the US Civil War--but the economy of the North was pretty dependent on railroads, which were (and are) quite vulnerable to sabotage.

I think the reasons why these defeated peoples did not turn to large-scale terrorism (although there *was* some terrorism in Germany in the form of the Werewolves and in the American south in the form of the KKK and similar orgaizations) must be sought in factors other than technology.

Shira:

I see no silver linings to Annapolis. None at all. Just a bunch of Arab tyrants getting together to gang up on the Jooz.

Sara:

Thanks so much for your articulate and valuable comment.

Let me address your points as best I can.

1. Fourth Generation Warfare. Israel is in a unique position vis a vis this form of warfare. The IDF must be prepared to fight a conventional state war and at the same time wage ruthless counter-terrorist warfare on an hourly basis for Israel is locked in an existential battle with 22 Arab neighbors. If Israel were to let down her guard for one instant, well, farewell Israel.

2. Israel has fought several wars with her Arab neighbors and each war has ended not with formal surrenders, which logic would dictate, as the Arabs have lost each war, but with cease-fires. This has served to preserve "Arab honor." In truth, these cease fires have merely allowed the Arabs to maintain the illusion that they have never lost to the Jews, and that they never will be defeated by the infidel Jews for the Western powers will always come to their rescue. This is, as you know, Pavlovian reinforcement for very bad behavior. And this dysfunctional behavior will only continue and worsen until someone (take your pick) in the Arab world is taught a lesson, made an example.

I choose Gaza. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Arabs of Gaza voted overwhelmingly for Hamas. Thus they are responsible for the actions of their government. And their government is responsible for the endless rain of missiles on the state of Israel, the enormous build-up of arms and bunkers in Gaza. Not to mention the kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Thus, Israel's first duty is to protect her citizens, the integrity of her borders—this goes back to the Westphalian Treaty—and Gaza, now Judenrein, and given ample opportunity and funds to build an infrastructure, has declared itself an enemy state, and should be treated as such, with utmost savagery.

3. We do not create terrorists. Radical Islam creates terrorists. We do not invite bombings anymore than a woman in Saudi Arabia invites a gang rape by being alone with a few men. Dysfunctional Arab/Muslim culture creates a society where murder, terror and I'm sure we need not remind you where "honor killings" are common-place and celebrated.

4. Propaganda. It makes no difference what Israel does. The Arab media is drenched in lies and Jew-hatred. The mainstream Western media is a disgrace, lapdogs to jihad. It is time to cease trying to be loved and move ahead with the exercise of power. Our enemies are at the moment dismembering the State of Israel and we are sitting at the table with genociders, Sudan, and those who seek to nuke Israel out of existence, Syria, and an entity that actively denies the right of Israel to exist, Fatah.

5. Jews will always find a reason not to exercise power. This is a recipe for national suicide, a return to Auschwitz.

Friends:

A Seraphic Friend just sent me an e-mail regarding my "Total War" post with these valuable quotes from Victor Davis Hanson about Sherman.

"Sherman...left the battlefield convinced there had to be a better way for a modern army to defeat its adversary than twenty thousand combined casualties in the space of forty-eight hours [Shiloh]. Sherman would craft the successful strategy of the Union war effort...a call for total war against the entire infrastructure of the enemy that need not entail the killing of innocent civilians......what enabled the enemy to charge at Shiloh, Sherman saw, were not mere weapons, but equally the soldiers' sense that the heart of their Confederacy was impregnable and their homes safe. Should he destroy that myth, wrecking the foundation of land and slaves, Southern armies would melt away....

For Sherman it was wrong to fight a Shiloh...far more humane, he grasped, was to burn the estates of the rich and the buildings of the rebel statesmen who had voted for secession..."

"Finally, Sherman developed the idea of collective guilt, or the controversial concept that no population that broadly supports a war should be entirely free of its bitter consequences."

-From VDH's book, "Ripples of Battle" pp. 92-93

It's an extreme form of narcissism.

It's worse. It's an extreme form of insanity.

PD:

Indeed:)

Robert, your point is well taken that we do not "invite" terror. Of course we don't (I chose the wrong word there), and I agree that radical Islam creates terrorists that will act no matter what Israel does, so long as it exists. (I also agree that we can not let down our guard - I just disagree with you as to what steps are most likely to be helpful.)

I think what I really meant to say is that massive civilian casualties create the conditions in which radical Islam is more likely to take root, which ultimately results in more terrorist acts. I do not believe, as you do, that the entire Arab or even Palestinian world is already dead set on our destruction. My family, friends, and I come into daily contact with Arabs who hate radical Islam and have completely accepted Israel's existence. Our challenge is how to encourage these people while at the same time fighting the jihadists with everything we've got. If we lump them all together, we will be facing many more enemies than we really have today.

By the way, I am also appalled that Sudan was invited to the conference.

I am also appalled that Sudan was invited to the conference.

Why? Are they worse than Syria? Same thing.

Sara:

Radical Islam flourished in Arab societies when there was no war with Israel, no war with America, no major casualties. It's a byproduct of Islam, and Jew-hatred which is pandemic to the Arab world.

We have already seen concrete evidence that appeasement only encourages further Arab/Muslim imperial terrorist violence.

So we know that doesn't work.

Total war is the one path that has worked historically to pacify totalitarian states, but has yet to be tried in the Middle East.

It's time will come. Israel cannot bear the weight of a hundred years war. No free society can endure such pressure.

It is their children or ours.

I choose theirs.

And so do they.

They boast of it.

It's lovely that you and your family and friends have close relations with fine Muslims who feel warmly towards Israel. There were also, I am told, good Germans during World War II. They were less than useless to the oceans of dead Jews.

Personal friendships are meaningless in in the world of geo-politics and, in fact, can lead to a detachment from reality especially when the facts are that the overwhelming majority of Arabs voted for Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. As does the charter of Fatah.

It is not "our challenge to encourage the moderates." That's, excuse me, quite paternalistic. Only they can encourage their own Islamic moderates. That is their challenge. I bear responsibility my society. The Arab/Muslims bear the same responsibility for their own behavior.

Cool blog! I have fallen in love with it!

Cedaferta:

Welcome to Seraphic Secret. Shucks, we're blushing.